New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

In the sky, above the plains that led to the gate, a massive cloud of black and blue was forming. The players could also see wild streaks of white moving inside.

Khalor was right under the cloud, and he could feel the hair on his arms standing. The amount of static electricity this required, at the distance he was from the clouds, was a dead giveaway of the power stored in those clouds.

He hurriedly dashed away from the top of his door, not wanting to be where that thing would hit. Not a moment after dashing away, a thunderclap echoed across the sky.

A flash of white, followed by a shockwave, blinded everyone looking at the door, and knocked anyone near it to their ass. Khalor was still mid-air when the shockwave hit his back.

The force behind it blew him away, sending him packing into the backs of players storming toward the gate. The shockwave reached the walls, having lost most of its force, only blowing wild winds on the players on the wall.

A cloud of dust had risen where the lightning bolt hit the ground. It was thick enough that it blocked any visual on its impact target.

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“Fine! If you want me to fight personally, I will!”

Khalor might not have the sharpest mana senses, but even a monkey would have felt where that surge in mana came from. Deep from inside the woods, further away than even the sniper players, was a small group of players.

They all wore mage robes, with similar patterns on them, with the only difference being the colours. All of them were standing in a circle, except for one.

That one person was sitting cross-legged on the ground, a crystal ball before them.

“Target hit! I think we destroyed it in one hit, sir!”

“Good. Let us retreat for now, then. Gather around me,” the only person in a dark blue robe said.

As the other mages gathered around him, he started chanting in a low voice. After thirty seconds of chanting, a flash of blue enveloped them before disappearing, along with them.

Khalor felt the surge of mana from deep inside the woods and sneered.

‘Cowards!’ he cursed in his mind.

He would have wanted to crush them for their insolence, but he knew they were gone now. This was a guild that would be extremely powerful in the future, but also one that only acted for their leader’s agenda.

And Khalor could easily guess what those intentions were here. After all, hundreds of players had been trying to reach his Death Door hoping to destroy it.

But they had done so without even being seen. He already knew their methods, but he hadn’t thought they would act for another few months.

Their action threw a wrench into his plans. With his portal gone, it severely diminished his ability to summon the undead.

But Khalor had no time to dillydally. He hurriedly invoked all his strongest undead, before pulling out his bident.

He would show these posers why he was the strongest player in the game still. Dashing into the oncoming players, Khalor uttered a guttural war cry.

From inside the fortress, Astaroth heard the war cry. He instantly recognized the voice, and his body filled with adrenaline.

He knew Khalor was currently fighting against waves upon waves of players, just like him, and it made his blood rush. He responded in kind, screaming to the skies.

His voice was less grave than Khalor’s, and he was no longer melded with white, so his shout wasn’t as impactful, but it had the desired effect. The surrounding players started shaking in their boots.

Astaroth was fired up again, and they would become his playthings.

“Alright! Time for round two!”

Dashing back into the enemies that were trying to surround him, Astaroth was wielding a sword in his hand. The sword kept lashing out, extending outward in arcs, reaping the lives of the unsuspecting players.

No one was safe from him, as long as they weren’t many feet away. It was a massacre.

On Phoenix’s front, her transformation was nearing its end. But her aim was already reached.

Close to no player remained on her side. They had mostly retreated, trying to make it to a zone where they wouldn’t be burned alive.

With this happening, she moved around ranged players, covering her direction, before changing zones. She wanted to move to a more pressing zone, where Violette had asked for help.

It was weird for the girl to ask for help, since she was just as powerful as any other core member. So Phoenix felt a sense of urgency.

Cancelling out her transformation, to save her mana, Phoenix quickly sprinted through the base, making her way to Violette’s zone. Once there, she climbed the new stairs they had built in the days leading to the siege.

On the top of the wall, Violette was multi-casting spells left and right. Whoever was directing the players on this side had grasped what her role was, and was now exploiting it.

Since Violette was using her magic to protect from incoming fire, she had to maintain shields on many players. But suddenly, the sniping team on the attackers’ side started bombarding them with attacks.

The extra damage coming in strained her shields so much, she constantly had to recast the water bubbles. And all this meant she couldn’t attack.

That raised another issue. At the foot of the wall, a massive golem-looking machine was drilling through the stone wall.

And Violette was helpless to stop it. And her allies were too busy keeping all the other players from reaching the wall, so the golem was drilling with impunity.

The gnome sitting inside its chest was grinning like an idiot. He was drilling with expertise, like he had done this many times before.

Phoenix assessed the situation in moments and knew she had to hasten her actions. She rapidly reignited herself before jumping down the wall.

But before she could make it to the machine, a bubble of energy enveloped the zone where he was. A small gadget had sprung from the ground, and it was whirring with electricity.

“I’m sorry, lass. But I will have to ask you to wait here while my brother drills through that precious wall of yours.”

The voice came from a gnome that walked out from between the golem’s legs. He was grinning wildly, watching Phoenix from across the energy barrier.

“Who the fuck are you?!” Phoenix screamed, rage apparent in her flaming eyes.